Montigo Resorts Part 4: My Villa

Awwright! I finally get to show you my villa at Montigo Resorts!!! о(ж＞▽＜)ｙ ☆

Let me take you on a little tour around my hillside villa.

☆*✲ﾟ*｡The Living Room ｡*ﾟ✲*☆

Welcome to my humble abode, everybody. o(≧∇≦o)

Put the stove to the test one evening and dinner came out f i n e.

Bring your own food/ingredients if you want to cook… The supermarkets are quite far out. I went to the one at Nagoya. It was very crowded, more costly than in Singapore, and the service was verrrrrrrry slow. (҂⌣̀_⌣́) Shocker huh?

The above two photos were taken with my iPhone so please excuse the non-professional shots!

☆*✲ﾟ*｡The Pool ｡*ﾟ✲*☆

Mornings by the pool are perfect for a little yoga session.

Do yourself a favour and spend some time by the pool side in the mornings!

Even though you can’t catch the sunrise from there, it’s so peaceful. The morning breeze makes it all the more glorious. (｡’▽’｡)♡ Soak in that!!!

In my opinion, the best times to use the pool is before 1030am and after 630pm. It’s too hot in between.

The villas, as you can tell by now, is west facing. Which means…while you can’t catch the sunrise, the sun sets right before your eyes. (๑๏‿ฺ๏๑)｡

Therefore, the pool gets direct sun in the afternoon. So unless you like immense heat and potential sunburn, I won’t recommend it.

HOWEVER, it’s sublime once the sun sets! I give you my word.

For one, the water is – get this – warm at night. Unbelievable innit??

Initially, I thought it was a heated pool, but it is only because the water’s been boiled throughout the day by the hot, hot sun that’s why it felt like the perfect bath. (∿°○°)∿ ︵ ǝʌol

Hence, perfect for after the sun sets.

In fact, it’ll be lovely to catch the last rays of sunset from the pool!

The rooftop’s a great choice too, but I think it’s way more romantic in the pool.♡｡ﾟ.(*♡´‿` 人´‿` ♡*)ﾟ♡ °・

Warm, private and yet with a view? Sounds like the ideal spot for romance.

☆*✲ﾟ*｡The Nest ｡*ﾟ✲*☆

I could spend the whole afternoon just lying in bed. It is that big and cosy!!!!( ´͈ ૢᐜ `͈ૢ)･*♡੭ੇ৸♡੭ੇ৸♡

This is where I do EVERYTHING – work, rest, watch TV, lounge… I can even watch sunset in bed! ♡⃝ ˻˳˯ₑ♡⃝⋆

And did I mention my bathroom is ginormous??

I take back what I said earlier – I can spend my afternoons in the bathroom too.

It has an open concept where you get direct sunlight.

So while you may feel like that at noon…

you’ll be totally fine after 3 o’clock.

I kid you not, this was taken at around 330pm and I was f i n e. o (◡‿◡✿)

If you haven’t done the math by now, I stay far, far away from the sun as much as I can.

Because I’m a wussy vampire.

Don’t worry, Madeleine and Claudia didn’t suffer much… at least not as much as the tanning girls in Final Destination.

Put the resilience of Make Up Forever’s Aquamatic collection to the test. Since it’s said to be waterproof, I wore it to swim AND bathe. It turned out to meet my expectations, which was a nice surprise!

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

OK now, here’s my low-down on the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I’ll start with the negative as I don’t want to end this post on a bitter note. I honestly enjoyed most of my stay there. As much imperfections as there were, the “good” was so terrific, it made up for the “bad” and “ugly”. ´͈ ᵕ `͈

In fact, I’m yearning to go back soon!

THE BAD

Not everything was perfect…

My keycard failed me twice. With no form of communication to front desk, I had to wait for a buggy to come by and wave it down. Luckily though, the guys were very helpful and got us in to the villa very quickly. (´∀`)

When Agata brought me into the villa on the 1st day, I noticed that the kettle needed cleaning. She told me she will send a sponge and detergent over. I don’t know what happened, but none of that came.

I had to call front desk after 4 hours to check on this tiny matter. (Of course I wasn’t waiting around for 4 hours la. I got reminded of this when they rang my door bell and in came my passport instead of what I asked for. And I was like, “What?! They had my passport all this while??”)ಠ_ಠ

Housekeeping has to up their game

The villa felt like it hasn’t been mopped in weeks! I remember washing my feet often.

Once after returning from breakfast, I had to invite housekeeping to clean up too because it was already 1 c’lock. Not sure why I had to keep reminding them to do their job…

After which I noticed 1) the face towels were missing, 2) some toiletries weren’t replenished, 3) the floors were still as dirty, 4) they took away my sponge and detergent. Why in the world were they confiscating those???

(*≧m≦*) (*≧m≦*) (*≧m≦*)

I wouldn’t care much about toiletries and towels usually. The only reason why I needed them was to get the perfect, pristine shot of the bathroom.

However, they kept getting the items wrong, so it became a groundhog day of calling front desk to repeat my requests, then running up and down the stairs to get the door. After doing this repeatedly, I decided to content with this.

Amidst all that frustration and exhaustion, housekeeping sent this…

A broken bottle. Can you believe this?

The only unfriendly person in the whole of Montigo Resorts was from housekeeping too.

The first day was messy too

The most awkward moment that trumped all: The door to my room couldn’t close.

There was a crack in the wall that caused the door frame to jut out. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, no one came to help me for a whopping 3 hours. ╭(๑¯д¯๑)╮

I called front desk to describe the situation, hoping it would save some time. I ended up wasting my breath. Because when someone finally came over, he still couldn’t help! ＼(`O´θ／He just came to take a look even though I already explained why the door couldn’t close.

He kept saying they needed an engineer to look into this. He was very nice, but couldn’t tell me if I could get another villa or when this problem can be resolved. Basically, he was no help. └(>o< )┘|}}

I swear he works at Montigo. God forbid I invite a stranger into my villa.

When I finally got a reply from front desk, they told me they will shift me to a nicer villa.

I packed as soon as I returned from dinner and called front desk when I was ready to move. Only then, they decided to tell me that the air-conditioning in the other villa wasn’t working. -.-

I ended up moving 2 doors down.

The new villa

I went over to that villa with my luggages, saw it and told them I wanna move back. End of story.

(━┳━ _ ━┳━)

Besides dinner, my first day at Montigo was a saga of calling front desk, unpacking, packing, and unpacking.

So…………………. I had no choice but to sleep with my door ajar on the first night.

But here’s the good news! The engineers fixed it the next day! ᵗʱᵃᵑᵏઽ*

The car couldn’t start as it was an antique. I spent an hour watching several men pushing the car around the carpark. I would think if we book a tour at a certain time, they would be ready for us.

Then… they came up with a solution 2 hours later: A normal car will take us out.

Many of these delays and waits could have been avoided with simple efficiency and contingency plans.

THE UGLY

How can there be anything ugly when there’s so much beauty? When a flying cockroach crashes the party, that’s how. ヽ(●-`Д´-)ノ

The first night at the restaurant was very memorable. Dinner ended with one greeting us by floating above our heads like a butterfly.

Despite telling the restaurant staff that we didn’t need such entertainment, it continued its grand display of hovering techniques. The staff just stood and watch.(¬､¬)

The next day, I spotted one flying about the top of the stairwell.

I went up to see if rooftop dining was a good idea. Not only did I get my answer, I also managed to squeeze in some cardio work out!

Wish I had already had dinner if I knew I would be dashing down 4 flights of stairs though.

Maybe dinners were just jinxed for me. Would have loved to dine on the rooftop, but perhaps I have to try again next time.

Another unfortunate thing about going to Montigo Resorts is having to go through the horrible customs at Tanah Merah. （▼へ▼メ）This is totally out of the resort’s control, but a necessary pain for guests to deal with.

Unlike Changi Airport where customs are refined and respectful, those at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal are barbaric. 凸(｀⌒´メ)凸

It’s a big change as the custom officers at Batam’s Nongsapura are very nice.♥(✿ฺ´∀`✿ฺ)ﾉ Things are more pleasant once you get off the boat. If you guessed as much, going back was a pain too. In fact, the very first nasty person was the Batam Fast guy collecting our ferry tickets!

Yes, we were on Batam soil still and just passed the friendly customs. The difference is STARK. Oh thanks for reminding us that we are heading back to a land of nasties! ಠ_ಠ It was that exact point when I knew my holiday ended.

This boor of a ferry ticket collector was busy staring everybody down including those who bothered to smile at him.（；¬＿¬) Psycho much?! He looked ready to throw a punch anytime.

t(-_-t) 凸(｀△´＋）

凸(｀0´)凸 (」゜ロ゜)」

Maybe his panties were in a twist because of a bad day but take your problems home man! How is that assuring for passengers? ヽ(｀⌒´メ)ノ If you’re not happy to work for Batam Fast, go work for Montigo instead! The people there will teach you some manners!

THE GOOD

Its beauty. ༗‿༗

You can’t deny how lovely Montigo Resorts is. You can find old Indonesian culture and architecture beside modern, hip interiors that will appeal to the tech-loving, Instagram-posting Singaporean.

The staff are very helpful and friendly! They will be more than happy to strike up a conversation with their guests and not return friendly gestures awkwardly or worse – nonchalantly. You know… like service personnel in Singapore. -.-

Generally, they are a bunch of warm, appreciative people of great hospitality. =͟͟͞͞=͟͟͞͞ ♡

And of course, this personalised greeting was a nice touch too.

THE BREAKFASTS!

They say eat breakfast like a king… and on a dream getaway, I believe you’d want your first meal of the day to be extravagant.

At Montigo Resorts, you’ll be greeted with a royal spread of options for breakfast!(๑′ڡ‵๑)۶४४yϋᵐᵐӵ

Another thing I love about this place is that I won’t need to fuss over logistics if I want to head out and explore. There are many activities organised by Montigo Resorts. I wish I could do their fireflies trail!!!!!!!!!! That’s something Singapore can NEVER offer.

And let’s say you don’t want to do any activities AT ALL. You just wanna nua. Hey, that’s perfect!

Let the villa take care of you.

In fact, I would do the same. Like I said, I can stay in bed all afternoon! And to be honest, I wish I did.

I believe by now you’re more than convinced the villa is in my good books despite its shortcomings.˄̻ ̊σ(˃̴͈◡ुමੈॆ⋆)˄̻ ̊~♡⃛

I wouldn’t have had a reason to visit Batam if not for my longing of a luxury resort vacation. As you know, I’ve always been a city girl. So thanks for having me, Montigo! ٩(๑•◡-๑)۶ⒽⓤⒼ

If I were to do it all over again, I would spend more time around Montigo’s beach bars.

And the villa.

LOL. ( •ॢ◡-ॢ)

Hopefully with time, this relatively new attraction will improve and become the closest dream holiday destination to Singapore.